Clip-on ties squeezing out traditional knots as schools crack down in health and safety blitz

Catherine Tate as Lauren, who takes a scruffy attitude to her school uniform

Learning how to fasten a tie had always been a schoolboy's rite of passage.

But then the health and safety police got involved.

Concerns over accidental strangling, playground games in which pupils yank each others' ties and fears that ties might catch fire in science lessons have seen the classroom institution fall victim to its clip-on cousin.

Sales of these, which are permanently tied and attach to the front of the shirt with a clip behind the knot, have soared over the past four years.

Not only are they seen to be safer but clip-ons also prevent pupils from loosening the knots or wearing their ties in the scruffy style favoured by Catherine Tate's errant schoolgirl character Lauren.

Tie manufacturer William Turner and Son barely made any in 2005. But now they make up 10 per cent of orders. And half of all inquiries about school uniforms mention clip-ons rather than the traditional variety.

'It has gone from practically zero to 10 per cent in the space of four years and we expect it to continue rising steadily,' said managing director Andy Smith.

'The reasons are health and safety, the convenience of not having to tie a tie and that heads want to keep the tie at regulation length. The only way of guaranteeing that is a clip-on.'

Clip-ons are more usually worn by police officers and security guards.

But flagship academies, state-funded independent schools, are among schools at the vanguard of the trend in education. They place orders of about 1,500 clip-ons to ensure business-like uniforms, he said.

Gill Griffin, vice-chairman of the Schoolwear Association, which represents uniform suppliers and retailers, said health and safety concerns were increasingly affecting uniform choices.

'We think there's a huge demand for the clip-on ties,' he said. 'Quite a few schools are now swinging over to them. They are really fed up with children wearing ties too short and they are doing it for health and safety reasons.

'If a tie is on fire, say, and it is a clip-on, you can just get rid of it. If it is a traditional tie, you could really have a problem. Poor teachers are worried about health and safety and anything they can do to prevent there being a problem, they will.'

Ties are not the only uniform item to be made safer, she added. Schools are increasingly adding a high visibility trim to school bags and reflective stripes to scarves.

In one recent case a Surrey schoolboy was hospitalised for three days with suspected spinal injuries after falling victim to a prank known as the 'peanut'. This involves yanking a tie downwards so it pulls tightly round the neck and the knot begins to resemble a peanut.

Clip-ons have also been credited with improving pupils' behaviour at Arthur Terry School, in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands.

Head Christopher Stone said: 'It's a mess when you walk around town and you see children with their buttons undone and their ties all over the place. Both attendance and behaviour had improved since the ties were brought in.'

Although you might think school uniforms go unchanged for years and years, other trends are also emerging.

Many are adopting 'house' systems - traditionally used by public schools - and order ties and sports polo shirts in different colours to distinguish members of one house from those of another.

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Clip-on ties squeezing out traditional knots as schools crack down in health and safety blitz